Show & hiding the Windows 8 on screen keyboard from WPF

I could successfully close onscreen keyboard with the following C# code.

[DllImport("user32.dll")]public static extern int FindWindow(string lpClassName,string lpWindowName);[DllImport("user32.dll")]public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, int lParam);public const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;public const int SC_CLOSE = 0xF060;private void closeOnscreenKeyboard(){    // retrieve the handler of the window      int iHandle = FindWindow("IPTIP_Main_Window", "");    if (iHandle > 0)    {        // close the window using API                SendMessage(iHandle, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_CLOSE, 0);    }  }private void Some_Event_Happened(object sender, EventArgs e){    // It's time to close the onscreen keyboard.    closeOnscreenKeyboard();}

I hope this will help you.

A little bit late, I'll just improve tasaki example for a complete one of what I did to enable show/hide on gotFocus/LostFocus event when user click on a textBox in my WPF application for windows 8 tablet.I hope this help people with similar headache, because disabling InkHelper, doesn't really work well if u want to scroll with touch event...

First of all u must add these reference to your App.Xaml.cs File.

using System.Management;using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

The code:

    protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs eventArgs)    {        EventManager.RegisterClassHandler(typeof(TextBox), UIElement.GotFocusEvent,                                new RoutedEventHandler(GotFocus_Event), true);        EventManager.RegisterClassHandler(typeof(TextBox), UIElement.LostFocusEvent,                                new RoutedEventHandler(LostFocus_Event), true);       MainApplication.Show();    }    private static void GotFocus_Event(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)    {       // TestKeyboard();        OpenWindows8TouchKeyboard(sender, e);    }    //http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/29d7e0/get-the-key-board-details-of-your-system-in-windows-form/    private static bool IsSurfaceKeyboardAttached()    {        SelectQuery Sq = new SelectQuery("Win32_Keyboard");        ManagementObjectSearcher objOSDetails = new ManagementObjectSearcher(Sq);        ManagementObjectCollection osDetailsCollection = objOSDetails.Get();        //Windows 8 tablet are returnign 2 device when keyboard is connecto        //My application won't be used for Desktop so this condition is fine        //But u might want to see if keyboard is usb and == 1 so you are         //returning true or not on tablet.          return osDetailsCollection.Count <= 1 ? true : false;    }    private static void OpenWindows8TouchKeyboard(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)    {        var textBox = e.OriginalSource as TextBox;                if (textBox != null && IsSurfaceKeyboardAttached())        {            var path = @"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\TabTip.exe";            if (!File.Exists(path))            {                // older windows versions                path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System) + @"\osk.exe";            }            Process.Start(path);            textBox.BringIntoView();//SetFocus so u dont lose focused area        }    }    [DllImport("user32.dll")]    public static extern int FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);    [DllImport("user32.dll")]    public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, int lParam);    public const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;    public const int SC_CLOSE = 0xF060;    public const int SC_MINIMIZE = 0xF020;    private void CloseOnscreenKeyboard()    {        // retrieve the handler of the window          int iHandle = FindWindow("IPTIP_Main_Window", "");        if (iHandle > 0)        {            // close the window using API                    SendMessage(iHandle, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_CLOSE, 0);        }    }    private void LostFocus_Event(object sender, EventArgs e)    {        // It's time to close the onscreen keyboard.        CloseOnscreenKeyboard();    }

I open-sourced my project to automate everything concerning TabTip integration in WPF app.

You can get it on nuget, and after that all you need is a simple config in your apps startup logic:

TabTipAutomation.BindTo<TextBox>();

You can bind TabTip automation logic to any UIElement. Virtual Keyboard will open when any such element will get focus, and it will close when element will lose focus. Not only that, but TabTipAutomation will move UIElement (or Window) into view, so that TabTip will not block focused element.

For more info refer to the project site.